The Dragon Boat Festival arrived on June 10 this year with a crescendo of drumbeats in Diejiao Village of Foshan City in Guangdong Province, south China. Famous for its dynamic and exhilarating dragon boat races—a tradition dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)—the village has emerged as a favored spot for tourists celebrate the festival.
For the locals, this festival is one of the highlights of the year. To secure top results in the races, villagers who have moved away are summoned back well over a month in advance to start their preparations. The training sessions further drum up enthusiasm for the dragon boat races.
Passing passions
Wen Yongcheng, who was born in the village in 2000 and later relocated to Macao Special Administrative Region with his family during his middle school years, has harbored the dream of racing in a dragon boat since his childhood. This year, he dedicated himself to making that dream a reality, traveling six hours back to Foshan from Macao every Friday after school to participate in night training sessions for his first official race.
The dragon boat races in Diejiao are unlike those on open waters. Here, the 25-meter-long dragon boats must deftly navigate through channels less than 6 meters wide. The 30 crew members aboard are tasked with executing a series of intricate maneuvers, including sharp turns, abrupt stops, and rapid sprints. Any minor error can result in a collision. The boats’ ability to drift around corners and reverse has added a visually captivating element to the races.
Wen is proud of being a member of the winning dragon boat team. “It’s incredibly thrilling to aim for and attain such honor alongside childhood friends,” Wen told China Central Television (CCTV).
The boat Wen raced on, with nearly half of its crew born after 2000, has attracted the attention of the village’s elder generation. They see in these young participants the future and hope for the continuation of the dragon boat racing tradition.
Li Youhang, born in 1997, is a key member of the team. Positioned at the front of the boat, he leads by chanting slogans in rhythm with the drummer positioned on the stern to inspire the younger paddlers seated between them. “They remind me of my own early days of training on the boat,” he told CCTV.
The tradition of dragon boat racing surged in popularity on social media during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Each region, with its distinctive geographical characteristics, introduces unique variations to the sport.
For instance, the narrow waterways of Diejiao Village necessitate that dragon boats enter the competition sequentially, racing against time rather than directly against each other. This format demands that competitors continually strive to exceed their personal bests.
In the rugged terrain of Longjiapu Village, situated in Mayang Miao Autonomous County of Hunan Province in central China, the teams must undertake a strenuous upstream journey, covering tens of kilometers by river to reach the competition site, as the mountainous roads present logistical challenges for transporting dragon boats by land. Villagers along the route offer them encouragement by setting off fireworks and
firecrackers.
Similar to Diejiao, the inhabitants of Longjiapu eagerly return home to participate in the dragon boat race. The village team, composed of villagers aged 18 to 55, often includes members from the same family such as father and son or brothers.
The journey’s challenge for the team members extends beyond merely rowing upstream. It also includes skillfully navigating through rapid currents to safely beach the boat. Their traditional dragon boat, nearly 40 meters in length, risks capsizing or sustaining damage if not handled correctly during these critical moments. It falls upon the steersman, armed with experience, to discern the safest path by keenly observing the water’s color and wave patterns.
Once a viable route is identified, the drummer signals the paddlers, with drumbeats, to pool their strength and paddle in unison. In these moments, the drummer’s role is crucial to lifting the team’s morale and energy.
As the rhythm of the beat intensifies, the dragon boat gradually makes headway against the current, driven by the collective effort of the team. “We all share a love for the sport and are united in our pursuit to embody resilience and courage,” said Chen Yinhao, a paddler of the team.
Give it a goal
Dragon boat races have boosted local tourism, with data from leading travel platform Trip.com indicating that Foshan experienced a 55-percent surge in hotel bookings during the Dragon Boat Festival compared with last year.
In addition to dragon boat races, various other forms of rural sports have injected vitality into China’s rural areas.
In Rongjiang County, located in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, the recent rise in popularity of the Village Super League—a rural soccer league, has led to an 11-fold increase in local hotel bookings.
A rural sport phenomenon in Guizhou, the league captured widespread attention in 2023. Despite, or perhaps because of, its small-village vibe, the league has set national records for attendance and viewership, with single game attendance exceeding 60,000, and total online views surpassing 48 billion.
After going viral online last year, the Village Super League has continued to evolve and mature. On May 27, former Brazilian football legend Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, famously known as Kaká, graced the Village Super League pitch, where he played and scored a goal alongside local players. He also participated in a charity match for local primary school girls, further boosting the event’s profile.
The number of teams participating in league has also expanded. On June 10, a special team from Xigaze in Xizang Autonomous Region made their league debut in Rongjiang. It is the first team from Xizang to participate in the competition.
On the sideline of the games, the Xigaze Cultural and Tourism Carnival was held nearby, showcasing the stunning scenery and rich intangible cultural heritage of Xigaze to promote its tourism.
“This event represents an innovative exploration integrating culture, tourism, and sports, and promoting cultural exchange and tourism through activities,” said Ge Yongming, Deputy Director of the Xigaze Municipal Tourism Development Bureau.
Ge emphasized that the Guizhou Village Super League is not just a celebration of soccer but also a platform for cultural exchange. Hosting a Xigaze cultural and tourism promotion event alongside the Village Super League is a pioneering exploration aimed at expanding the city’s influence.
Hoops and hopes
In Taijiang County, another county in Guizhou, the Village Basketball Association (VBA) is also creating a festive atmosphere.
Since the tournament commenced on March 22, over 600 teams from 24 provincial-level regions have been vying for victory in a competition that will continue until November. At least half of the players on each team must be farmers.
Originally organized to celebrate a local festival on the sixth day of the sixth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the basketball games went viral in 2022, attracting over 1.5 billion online views that year. In 2023, the event garnered more than 55 billion views, further cementing its status as both a cultural and sporting phenomenon.
“We plan to take the championship team to an exchange program with the American NBA, allowing them to interact with professional NBA players,” said Cen Jianglong, head of Taipan Village, Taijiang, and co-organizer of the tournament, in an interview with China Daily newspaper.
He revealed that during the VBA tournament, at least one NBA player will visit Taipan to engage with the players and the local community. The organizing committee also intends to establish a VBA alliance through the tournament to promote the development of rural basketball.
Gao Delong, a basketball player from a village in Ningjin County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province in north China, considered the tournament a good opportunity to meet teams from the south. “This competition not only provides a platform for teams from both regions to exchange skills but also allows young people from different ethnic backgrounds to understand each other and build friendships, creating a favorable environment for national unity,” he said.
Zhou Xiangzhong, an enthusiastic audience member from Guangdong Province arrived early in the morning to secure a seat. “The atmosphere is electrifying, and it was truly worth coming. Despite the rain, the performers gave it their all, and the players fought hard on the court. Their spirit deeply moved me,” he said.
According to figures from the local government, in 2023, Taijiang County attracted 6.4 million tourists, a nearly 75-percent increase year on year, and the county’s tourism revenue reached 8.46 billion yuan ($1.17 billion), up nearly 95 percent year on year.
Grassroots sports have experienced a surge in recent years, with many regions organizing sporting events.
For instance, in Wenchang City, Hainan Province, a volleyball competition featuring diverse playing styles began on June 15. Twenty village teams will compete in 52 matches that will last until August, drawing broad participation.
“There are over 600 volleyball courts in the city, covering almost all villages,” Pao Guangyu, the official in charge of tourism in Wenchang, told Guangming Daily. “At the grassroots level, sports events combined with entertainment activities are driving local cultural and tourism development. We will endeavor to make our village volleyball tournament nationally renowned, making it more enduring.” –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
